Checking In

Let’s have a little life update.

- Jake has made himself at home in our house.  A little too much.  He’s kind of on thin ice right now.  Truth be told, it’s pretty clear that he needs to be an only dog. He is insanely jealous of attention we give to Isabelle and Zoe.  To the point where he storms over and pushes the other dogs out of the way if we are petting or holding them.  Not cool, Jake.  Not cool.  He is also super rowdy, which is fine, but he runs over the other dogs all the time.  Isabelle doesn’t even get out of her cage on her own when we get home because she is scared of him :(  It makes me so sad.  But Isabelle and Zoe were our very first babies and they come first.  We aren’t planning on trying to find a home for him again, but if one presented itself, we would probably consider it.  Poor Jakey poo.  He is a sweet dog.  He just needs a TON of attention :)

- My house is a disaster right now.  I can NOT keep up with it.  So frustrating.  I don’t understand how this happens when we really do have a place for everything.  I constantly feel like I need to re-organize every space because that might help.  And I feel like ALL I do is dishes lately.  Although, I haven’t cooked dinner at all this week (I usually do every night) and there have been WAY less dishes to wash.  Maybe I’m on to something here….

- I am super proud to say that we are almost finished Christmas shopping. I just need to get stocking stuffers and we are all set!  This never happens so early in the month for us.

- Cooper is so wild right now.  And I really think it’s partially due to Jake.  He gets Cooper all riled up and then they go crazy.  Cooper literally bounces off the walls at night.  Literally.  He bounces from the wall to his bed, and repeat until we make him stop.  I have never seen a child with so much energy.  It wears me out just watching him!

- Coop’s language development is so so awesome right now.  The things he says both surprise us and crack us up!  When did he learn some of these things?  Last night he pointed to a Santa and said “Santa Clause. I sit on his lap. I get pesents”  We have never told him anything about Santa or sitting on his lap.  He has gone to see Santa every year, but that’s about the extent of us talking about him.  And he does know about presents, but usually relates them to birthdays, never Santa.  Must be school, although they focus more on the real meaning of Christmas, so who knows.  Oh, he can also “spell” his name: C-O-P-R.  Pretty close :)

- I am seriously counting down the days until I am off for Christmas.  12 work days and counting…

- How’s this for logical: I hate running.  Hate.  I signed up for a relay with my co-workers, which I’ve talked about it.  I had to run 5.5 miles.  I had every intention of training, but I didn’t.  Because I hate running.  I was dreading the race, and complained about it every day at work.  And then I ran it.  And it was so awesome and fun.  My team was super proud of our time.  But I haven’t run since.  And now I’m signing up to run 2 half-marathons in 2013.  HA!  I will be joining a training team this time so that I can actually DO it.  We’ll see how it goes.

An Unexpected Addition

Meet Jake:

  

Two weeks ago, I found him in our neighborhood.  I snapped this picture below, and posted it to our neighborhood’s facebook wall.  Then, I continued on my run. And he followed me.  For almost a mile, he followed me.  All the way to my house.  And since I have a soft spot for dogs, I tentatively asked Lee if we could keep him for the night, because it was going to get really cold out.  Lee begrudgingly let me keep him an a cage in our garage.  And then he brought him bowls of food and water :)  He was a really sweet dog and obviously needed attention.  He went right into the cage and didn’t make a peep all night.  I gave him like 5 queen sized blankets because I was afraid he would get cold.

The next morning I took this picture and made some signs and hung them around the neighborhood.

That night, we let Cooper see him, which was instant excitement for him.  This dog played with him!  He didn’t run from him!  He loved it.

We also let the dog hang out in the house for the evening (after he got a bath).  Until he peed on our carpet.  Clearly not housebroken.  Boo.  Back into the cage in the garage.  Which he actually didn’t seem to mind, but still.

Over the next few days, we heard nothing on the dog.  No owners, no one wanting to give him a home.  Meanwhile, this was happening every night:

He is obsessed with me.  I don’t really mind.

Then one night, we moved his cage into the house.  I think you can see where this is going….

The dog, who we were calling “pup dog” slowly worked his way into our home.  Well, actually there was nothing slow about it.  He basically ran in and took over.  Haha. 

After a little over a week of trying to find him a home, we have decided to keep him.  Mostly because of how much Cooper loves him.  But also because he’s just a sweet dog.  He gets along fine with our two dogs, who are maybe getting a little jealous, but they don’t really mind him being around.  He doesn’t bark. (well, yet)  He loves to cuddle. And he’s catching on to potty training.

We settled on the name Jake this morning, and he’s going to the vet tomorrow to get checked out.  Hopefully he doesn’t have a chip, or else Cooper is going to be one sad boy!  And Lee and I might be a little sad too ;)

I never ever thought that we would have 3 dogs at once.  But he is really no more work than the other 2 so what the heck. 

Although, I’m afraid that Lee will never let me bring home a stray again….

Oh Cooper

Y’all.  My child.  Oh, my child.  He gives me a run for my money, that’s for sure.  One minute he’s screaming throwing a fit because he can’t do whatever he wants, the next he’s being sweet and loving and giving us kisses and all “Mommy hold you”, and the next, he’s being hilarious and trying to make us laugh.

He has started having…discipline issues at school.  No disciplinary actions have ANY effect on his behavior.  At this point, I just have to laugh.  I’m not in the least bit surprised.  Actually, I was kinda happy to hear that it’s not just me/us at home.

So…he has been sent to the office twice in the past 10 days.  Ha.  I mean, I told his teacher to do whatever (and that we would work on more consistent discipline at home.)  My dad picked him up the first day he was sent, and he texted us saying “Wooooo Cooper was sent to the office today, I think even Tyler was a little older than him his first time there”.  Tyler being my brother, who was NO stranger to the principal’s office back in the day.

We have been having stricter time outs at home, but who knows if it’s making an impact.  I have never seen such stubbornness. I really hope this is a two year old/toddler thing, and not an indication of future behavior!

Monday Brain Dump

I have lots of things that I would like to blog about, but they all include pictures, and I continue to forget my camera cord at home.  I have a goal to start organizing pictures tonight, so maybe I’ll remember to get the pictures off of my (REAL!) camera.

We volunteered to host Thanksgiving again this year.  Much better than trying to split between families and driving 3 hours to my in-laws’.  I bought cute little Thanksgiving plates and cups at PBK for Cooper and his little cousin.  I’m also going to get Coop’s little table and chairs out for them to have their own table! Cute!! :)

I can’t believe I’m talking about Thanksgiving already.  Wasn’t it JUST here?!

Cooper has been SO funny lately.  The things he says are just hilarious.  And he loves to make us laugh.  I really need to start writing down the things he says.

I have to run 5.5 miles in less than 2 weeks.  And I don’t remember the last time I ran.  Oh, wait, I do.  I ran 1.3 miles on the treadmill a couple weeks ago, and I had to LEAVE THE GYM because I though I was going to pass out.  So, sounds like I’m in excellent shape for the marathon relay.  Blah.  I thought it would be a good motivator to make me realize I like running.  But I don’t.  I hate running, actually.  Oh well, I won’t have to any more after Nov 18

I have the worst luck with photographers.  Seriously, they never respond to my inquiries.  I emailed one last week, and haven’t heard back.  Granted, I’m aware that it’s a little late to schedule a fall session, but I just asked if there was any availability.  I’m also aware that I’m impatient, so maybe it’s normal.  Anyway, I think my parents are going to be our photographers for some family pics.  I just want a couple of good family shots, anyway, so this might work better.

Yesterday, I ran to Target by myself (!) for a couple of things.  Well, my quick trip turned into almost 2 hours of leisurely strolling up and down every aisle, with an eggnog latte in hand.  They even had Christmas stuff out. It was heaven.

Happy Halloween!!

From our dragon.  Although, if you ask him what he is, he will tell you “pirate ship”.  Haha :)

 

Today Cooper’s school had a bunch of fun things planned, including a “pumpkin patch” that had enough pumpkins for all of the kids, and each kid got to go and pick one out.  I can’t wait to see him and ask how much fun he had.

And yesterday, we talked about how he could wear his costume to school if he wanted and he replied “an dit da tandy?!” (and get the candy)  He is definitely my child :)

 

*This post brought to you by Dum Dums.  Never underestimate the power of a sucker.

The Owie

On Sunday, Cooper fell a couple of times while he was playing outside.  One of those falls resulted in a scraped up knee, but he never said anything about it, so neither did I.

By Monday, it had scabbed over.  Mind you, it was a series of very very small scrapes.  It never even bled.

Still no mention of it.

THEN bath time came around last night. Oh my lord.  He sat down in the tub and immediately SCREAMED bloody murder “AHHHHHH!!! OWIE!!!!! HURT!!!!! BAND AID!!! ICE PACK!!!!!! OWWWWWIIIIIEEEEE!!!!!  ICE PACK!!!!”

Literally, he screamed that for his entire bath. (he asks for an ice pack for everything because that’s what they do at school)  Shortest bath ever.  Then when I pulled him out, STILL screaming, he collapsed onto the floor.  Apparently was no longer able to walk or stand.

At this point, I was hysterically laughing.  I mean, what can you do?!  I have never seen him so dramatic.  And that’s saying something.

He wanted a band aid, then he wanted it off.  He wanted an ice pack but that made it hurt.  It was hilarious.  He was limping around like he had a broken leg.  He refused to put ANY weight on it.  I mean, seriously, you should have seen him limping.

Lee and I asked him several times if we needed to cut off his leg and he told us yes.

He finally got comfortable with the ice pack by laying it on ANKLE the OPPOSITE leg of the one that was hurt.  Ha!  I asked if that made his owie feel better and he said, in between hugs sobs, “yeahhh”.

We finally got him calmed down and I left Lee to put him to bed.  Lee said that the only way he would sleep was on his back with the ice pack over his knee.  LOL.  Normally he is a tummy-only sleeper.  Must have been really bad :)

I do regret one thing…next time something similar happens, I’ll definitely be taking a video!

Weekend!

 

I think it’s safe to say I’ve abandoned the 31 days of blogging challenge.  Don’t even pretend to be surprised. 

This weekend was TU homecoming, and Friday night, I went to an annual event called TU on Tap.  Basically, it’s meant to bring all alumni together so they can drink.  This year it was being held at Oktoberfest (which is really big here actually. The Today’s show even named Tulsa’s Oktoberfest as one of the top 10 things to do in the US in the fall)  And word must have gotten out because I’ve never seen it so crowded.  Or maybe I’m just a lot older.  Probably the latter.  Anyway, it was fun!  I didn’t get home until 1am but it was fun :)

Saturday, I had to deliver some cupcakes to a co-worker early in the morning, so I decided to make a morning of it and get my weekend errands out of the way.  I left Cooper with Lee and headed out.

I went to Panera and made my grocery list while enjoying breakfast.

And then I went to blow my cupcake proceeds on a shellac mani.  I had checked ahead of time and knew there was a salon right down the street from where I’d be, so I drove over and arrived about 10 minutes before they opened.  I waited in my car, and then when I had about 5 minutes left (I am very punctual, haha) a lady pulled up next to me and walked right in.  Ugh!  I walked in and she was already seated and getting a pedicure.  A woman hidden by a plant welcomed me, and I asked if they did shellac.  To which she just stared at me.  Then the woman doing the pedi (way in the back) started hollering at me to “please please wait” for a little while before she could get to me.  I asked he if they did shellac, and she sort of answered, but then I saw the gelish bottles and knew they did.  So I gladly sat down, although I was kind of weirded out.  Well, the lady that was now only partially hidden by a plant proceeded to talk on her cell phone while I waited.  I was confused because I thought she was a manicurist.  Did she not do nails?  After about 15 minutes, I’m now catching on that the plant lady will not be doing my nails.  Which leaved the pedi lady.  Well, a pedicure lasts about 30-40 minutes and I’m not going to sit around and wait when I could just go down the street to another nail place.  I didn’t want to be rude, but I was annoyed and wasting my precious alone time.  So I just got up and walked out without saying anything.  The lady from the back ran out after me! She was screaming “I’ll do your nails right now! Come in and sit down!” I said no thanks, and it was alright.  I mean, she’d have to stop doing the pedicure since apparently she was the only one working.  She continued to beckon me to come in, even after I’d gotten into and started my car!!  She was clearly crazy.

By that time, stores were open so I ran some errands and decided to just drive a little out of my way to the nail salon that I love.  Good choice.  Normal people.  More than 1 worker.  No one hidden by plants talking on their phone.

ANYway, then I ran to the grocery store and headed home.  That night, my parents came over to watch Coopie and Lee and I went to see Jeff Foxworthy.  Haha.  Kind of random, but whatever.  We went to a restaurant in the same venue as the show, just to have dessert.  It’s a nice restaurant, and Lee asked if we could just have dessert when he called to make a reservation, which they saif was fine.  Well, when we sat down, they started telling us specials and Lee said we were just having dessert.  The guy was exasperated and said “at least have an appetizer.”  Geez!  Lee kinda looked at me like, we could… And I was sorta still hungry, so we got one.  Even though I didn’t want to on principle.  It wasn’t even good!!!!  I didn’t even eat it!!!  Anyway, we ordered dessert and the chocolate tower was GIANT!!!  Here is a fuzzy pic:

Front camera pic waiting for the show to start

The show was good, but it was only a little over an hour.  On the bright side, I was in bed by 10:30.  Haha!

Cute little pumpkin on Sunday morning :)

We ended up doing a complete garage clean out on Sunday, which was awesome and much needed!

We are trying to choose a paint color for our bedroom.  Lee said I could paint it teal (!!!) But after trying the bottom left, I thought maybe it was a bit too much, so I tried the top left, which is way too gray.  It almost looks like the gray color throughout our house.  The one on the right is a no for sure.  Lee prefers the more gray, but I think I’m liking the bottom left one. He did say that was fine….we’ll see!

My parents got Cooper this pumpkin for Halloween and he really likes it!  Although he refused to smile for a picture.